In his defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard, Johnny Depp entered the testimony on Tuesday afternoon, stating he was focused on “cleaning the record” over charges of domestic abuse.
“The only thing that interests me is the truth.” “Lies get you nowhere,” Depp added, “but lies grow upon falsehoods and build upon lies.” “I’m fixated on the truth.”
Depp denied ever being aggressive with Heard or any other woman when being questioned by his own lawyer.
Over the course of their relationship, Heard has accused Depp of punching her, choking her, and kicking her. She has also claimed that during a fight in Australia in 2015, Depp sexually abused her. In 2016, Depp and Heard split.
Heard wrote an editorial piece for the Washington Post in December 2018 in which she alluded to her previous charges, though she did not name Depp. Depp has filed a $50 million lawsuit against her.
The Trial of Johnny Depp reveals a shady culture of celebrity enablers.
“I thought it was my job not only to stand up for myself in that circumstance but also to stand up for my children,” Depp claimed on the witness stand. “I thought it was terrible that my children would have to go to school and have their friends or classmates approach them with the famed People magazine cover of Ms. Heard with a dark bruise on her face,” says the mother.
Depp called the charges “very terrible and distressing,” and said they were “not rooted in any kind of fact.”
“It’s crazy when you’re Cinderella one day and Quasimodo the next,” he explained.
Depp also testified about his mother’s physical abuse of him as a child in Kentucky, claiming she would throw things at him and hit him with a high-heeled shoe.
He also mentioned how “it was as if she was too nice to be true” when he first met Heard, stating, “it was as if she was too good to be true.”
“She was observant. She was a sweetheart. She was astute. She was a nice person. She was a hoot. He stated, “She was understanding.” He went on to say that they both liked blues music and that Heard would often remove his boots when he got home.
“It was almost as if she had become another person,” he claimed after a year and a half.
Depp also discussed his acting career, including how he created Captain Jack Sparrow for the first “Pirates of the Caribbean” picture. He cited Bugs Bunny and Wile E. Coyote cartoons as sources of inspiration, claiming that cartoon characters might push boundaries while appealing to people of all ages.
“It’s like preparing soup,” he explained. “It’s just ingredients,” says the narrator. There’s a little Pepe Le Pew in there somewhere. “There’s some Keith Richards in there,” says the narrator.
He said that his celebrity grew as a result of the film’s success. Fans would attempt to enter his home costumed like Captain Jack Sparrow, prompting him to hire additional security to deal with the paparazzi.
Depp also spoke about text messages revealed in the trial in which he used aggressive and filthy language towards Heard, calling her a “c—” and discussing her “rotting body.” Hunter S. Thompson and Monty Python had inspired him, and he was prone to “black humor,” he said.
“I’m embarrassed by some of the references,” he admitted. “I’m embarrassed that what I was experiencing at the time — the heat of the moment, the heat of anguish — went to dark places.”
He was questioned about his drug use, which has come up several times during the trial. He claimed that he did not use drugs to “party,” but to “escape.”
“I’ve used these narcotics on and off to numb myself,” he explained, “to numb myself of the ghosts, the wraiths that were still with me from my boyhood.” “It was essentially self-medication, one of those ‘get me out of here’ moments, where all you want to get away from is your own brain, your own head,” says the author.
However, he sneered at Heard’s portrayal of “my quote unquote substance addiction,” claiming that her story is “grossly inflated” and that most of it is incorrect.
“I’m not a crazy person who has to be high or loaded all the time,” he explained.
Depp did admit that after injuring himself while tossing a chair filming “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” the fourth installment in the franchise, he became addicted to Roxicodone, a prescription painkiller. He described his addiction as a “monkey on your back,” and said he had been taking the drugs for at least four years.
In the years leading up to Thompson’s suicide in 2005, Depp and Thompson had become friends. Depp first met Heard during the casting of “The Rum Diary,” a 2011 film based on Thompson’s novel that Depp produced.
Depp testified, “I thought, sure, that’s the Chenault that Hunter wants,” alluding to his character’s love interest in the film. “That’s the one,” says the narrator. She has the potential to kill me.”
When they first started dating, Depp compared them to Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, another prominent couple with a large age gap. They referred to each other as “Steve” and “Slim,” after the characters played by Bogart and Bacall in the film “To Have and Have Not.”
“I accepted the fact that I was Bogey, the old guy, and she was this lovely creature — this exquisite beauty,” he explained.
He described their relationship as “nice at first,” but that “things started to expose themselves” after a while. He predicted that if he wanted to stay up late watching TV and she wanted to go to bed, Heard would react negatively.
“I didn’t understand why, as a 50-something-year-old man, I wasn’t permitted to go to bed when I wanted to, but she was,” Depp stated.
On Wednesday, Depp’s testimony will continue.
The trial will last through the end of May, and Heard will have the chance to testify in her own defense.
In July 2020, Depp testified at length in his libel trial in the United Kingdom against The Sun tabloid. Depp filed a lawsuit against the journal after it called him a “wife beater.” In that case, the judge ruled against Depp, finding Heard’s allegations to be “basically true.”